University puts exam results on waiting list

If there’s one thing that a student awaits more anxiously than an examination, it’s the result. But University of Pune (UoP) isn’t doing much to soothe the frayed nerves of its pupils.

The Maharashtra Public University Act 1994, Section 72 states that the varsity should declare results of any exam within 30 days. Even if there’s a delay because of some technical reasons that should not cross the upper limit of 45 days. However, while the university finally declared the results of BA and two management courses after a delay of more than a month, outcome of BCom, BSc and engineering exams is still awaited, though the 45-day phase is also over. The hold-up is adding to the woes of lakhs of students from more than 600 affiliated colleges who had appeared for these exams.

Too late: The exam department of the university is trying to trim the deferral period in declaration of results. But as the deadline has already been crossed, students are apprehensive. File Pic

Interestingly, two years ago in a similar situation, the then chief secretary of Higher and Technical Education department Sanjay Kumar had written to the then vice-chancellor of UoP Dr Raghunath Shevgaonkar to declare the results at the earliest. But it seems that the varsity has failed to learn lessons from the past.

On the other hand, the exam department of the university is trying to trim the deferral period in declaration of results. But as the deadline has already been crossed, students are apprehensive. The head of the examination department of UoP, Controller of Examinations (CoE) Dr Sampada Joshi, was busy in meetings pertaining to the announcement of results. When MiD DAY contacted her yesterday, she said, “Today we have declared the results of BA and two management courses MPM and MMM. The other (pending) results will also be out soon.”

In the engineering stream, the time limit of 45 days has already been breached but still not a single year’s result has been announced. Except for first-year engineering, all the exams were completed in November 2012. “Paper-checking is over and we have submitted the answer sheets to the exam department. The third-year engineering result may be out in the next three days, and the rest next week,” said Dr Gajanan Kharate, dean of engineering faculty.

The dean of Science faculty Dr KC Mohite clarified that it will take another two-three days for announcement of BSc results. In this faculty, except Biotechnology and Computer Science, results of other BSc courses are still pending. Out of around 150 exams held in October-November 2012, UoP has succeeded in announcing the outcome of only about 80 in the maximum available time limit, i.e. 45 days.

What about re-evaluation? As it seems that many results will not be out before February, students wouldn’t have time to go for re-evaluation. “The next exam is scheduled for March/April 2013. Normally, October exam results are declared in December and we get adequate time for applying for re-evaluation. But this time, it’s almost February and still our wait for results is not over. This is just not fair. They (UoP officials) should at least care about our future, which is becoming uncertain because of their apathy,” said a second year BCom student on the condition of anonymity.

The big move Recently UoP vice-chancellor transferred deputy registrar Vitthal Sathe out of the examination department after the latter complained about differences with CoE Dr Joshi in implementing the new automation policy in the department. Before the relocation, Sathe was handling a sub-division of the exam department, which directly deals with declaring results. When asked about the matter he said, “Till second week of January, I had declared 79 results, and according to my timetable and after thoroughly discussing with my colleagues I have decided to announce all the results before the end of this month. Besides this I don’t want to comment on anything.”